Virgil Storr, whose work I admire greatly, writes about the market as a coordinating institution in society by providing arenas in which interaction can occur. This is extremely important in the development of civilization – such interactions build trust, a critical component for transmission of information. 

Recently, I had an experience that got me thinking about differences in conceptions of privacy, and began pondering about how different cultural standards might govern commercial interactions:

* Getting ready to go to sleep, typing-typing on internet, Tony’s phone beeps. “Whoever could this be?” he ponders, reading the message:

Mystery Caller: “Hi – is this ‘little student Tony’? (小施同学; a normal, polite-ish diminutive form of address) Can you understand what I’m writing?”

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Eavesdropping on a conversation at a coffee shop the other week, I overheard something that had up until that point only been a rumor – the practice I’ve started calling the ‘mating interview.’ The setup: a man and woman (~late 20s) sit across from each other sipping tea – the woman asks a series of questions: “what’s your monthly income? is that after taxes? you said you lived alone, right? what’s the square footage on your flat? Is that construction measurement, or usable space measurement? you have a washer and dryer, or just the washer? …” 

So I did a little research. Good thing, since on the train ride back from Liaoning I was talking to my roommate and a new friend – a pretty girl from the university. About five minutes into our abnormally Tony-centric conversation I realized that my roommate was facilitating just such an interview. With me as the target interviewee.*

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